For a moment, they just stared at it. Then Harry reached forward and picked it up. He untied the bow, unrolled the parchment, and spread it on the table. The four friends gathered around and looked at it. It was a long letter, handwritten in black ink. The handwriting was familiar to them. And it wasn't the handwriting of Salazar Slytherin. Their eyes all headed directly to the bottom of the letter, which was signed "Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore."

They read the opening of the letter. A chill went down their spines as they realized that Dumbledore had written a letter just for them. Silently, they all read the letter together.

Dear Harry, Hermione and Ron:

If I'm not mistaken, Ginny is with you too. Greetings to you as well, Ginny.

I am writing this letter in the evening. Harry, in a few hours, you and I will go on a trip together. We are going to search for and, I hope, destroy the second horcrux. I am fairly certain that later tonight I will be killed at the hand of Severus Snape. This letter will be my final words to all of you. If my guess is correct, you will find it about a year from now.

If you are reading this, as I am confident you are, then all has unfolded as I hoped it would. Voldemort is dead. Harry, you succeeded in the seemingly impossible task I set for you, destroying all the remaining horcruxes, including the final horcrux that I have not revealed to you. You succeeded in destroying the piece of Voldemort's soul that you have carried within your own precious body all of these years. And you survived.

And Harry, I am also confident that you will not have succeeded in this task on your own. A wizard with the power of Voldemort could never be destroyed by only one person. It will have taken a group of people, working together, each person making their own unique contributions, to bring about this result. In fact, Harry, if my guess is correct, after you impaled Tom Riddle's diary with the basilisk fang in this very chamber, you will not have actually destroyed another horcrux with your own hand. Rather, I am confident that each piece of Voldemort's soul will have been destroyed at the hand of a different person. That is as it should be.

Harry, I am truly sorry that I could not share with you everything I knew. The secrets that I kept, I kept for what I believed were good reasons. I have asked your forgiveness in the past for having kept secrets from you. And yet I continued to keep information from you when I believed it was necessary.

I know that Professor Snape will have revealed to you at the appropriate time that you contained the final piece of Voldemort's soul, and that you needed to die yourself in order for Voldemort to be destroyed. This is what I told Professor Snape.

Yes, Harry, I know that Voldemort's curse will not fully kill you. I know you will have the choice of reclaiming your life, returning to your friends, and living out your days in peace. And I am confident that you will have made that choice. But I have not revealed this to Professor Snape, and he will not have revealed this to you. It causes me great pain to know that I will make you suffer the agonizing decision to lay down your own life to save the lives of your friends and to save the world from the most terrible wizard in history. I do not want to make you suffer in that way. But, Harry, I know you. And I know that you will have made the decision to sacrifice your own life for your friends. And the love in your heart that you will have shown by that act of courage will have protected all of the people at Hogwarts just as your mother's love protected you so many years ago. I must give you the opportunity to show that love even though I know the choice for you will be agonizing.

I do not know what fate will have befallen Professor Snape. If he has survived, I have left for Professor McGonagall sufficient evidence to allow her to clear his name and prove that he was loyal to me and not to Voldemort. However, unfortunately, I suspect that Voldemort is likely to have made a serious error and concluded incorrectly that Professor Snape is the true owner of the Elder Wand. If Voldemort has made that error, then at the time you are reading this Professor Snape will be dead. If Snape has died, Harry, I truly hope he shared some of his secrets with you before he died. If he did not, then those secrets will have died with him because I promised him that I will not reveal them. But please know this. Severus Snape was a good man. He was an honorable man. He was a brave man. He always protected you. He was a hero. Always remember him that way.

If I am correct, you will have obtained all three of the Deathly Hallows, but you will not have kept two of them. I trust that you had the wisdom to understand their danger, and that you have hidden or destroyed them. You are a wise young man, Harry, wiser in many ways than this old wizard.

Hermione, I believe that in the aftermath of the wizarding war you will finally have been successful in your efforts to free the Hogwarts house elves. You are a brave young woman with a good heart and a sharp moral compass. You saw right from wrong long before those of us much older than you could see it. We of many years have much to learn from idealists like you who see the world not only as it is, but also as it should be.

Ron and Ginny, always be proud of the family you come from. As I know you both realize, in the end money is not what is important. Your parents are good, brave, noble spirits, two of the finest people I have ever known. And you may not have known this, but your mother can cast one mean spell. I have no doubt that your parents and brothers will have fought bravely and with distinction in the final battle against Voldemort. I sincerely hope that all of them will have survived.

At that, Ron and Ginny both got choked up. Tears formed in their eyes as they continued reading.

I assume you are all wondering why I have hidden this letter to you in this manner in the Chamber of Secrets. My young friends, after you discovered this chamber four years ago, I was puzzled as to why this room was known as the Chamber of Secrets. The only secret I was aware of was the basilisk, which is a single secret. Over the past four years, I have spent many hours searching this chamber using all the means at my disposal to see if I could discover another secret. If Salazar Slytherin had left other secrets behind, I believe I would have found them. I am not sure how the chamber got its name, but I am confident there are no other secrets here.

Knowing you children as I do, I am sure that once Voldemort is defeated you will be looking for other adventures. And I know your curiosity will lead you to start wondering the same thing I did. And I know you will not rest until you answer the question. So I decided to leave a little treasure hunt behind for you. We have all been through so much pain and suffering. I decided that, as a farewell present, I would leave you with one more adventure to share together. I hope you enjoyed it.

Always remember how you defeated Voldemort. Your magic is not more powerful than his. His magic was more powerful than all of your magic combined. The reason you will have won this war is because you have several non-magical powers that he does not have.

First, you have the power of courage. Voldemort does not. He is driven only by fear, especially the fear of death. He has devoted his entire life to the hopeless quest for immortality. You cherish your lives, as well you should, but you understand that there are things in the world even more important than your own lives.

Second, you have the power of love. It is the strongest power on earth. Voldemort cannot even begin to understand it.

Finally, you have the power of friendship. You will only have succeeded in this task because you put your trust in each other. Voldemort trusts no one. Therefore, he is always alone. People with true friends are never alone.

As you travel on in life, always remember the power of friendship, the power of love, and the power of courage. They will serve you well throughout your lives. And, although I know I am repeating myself, I want to remind you once more of two important things. First, it is not our abilities that show who we truly are. It is our choices. And second, please always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.

I know all of you will have suffered in the fight against Voldemort. And Harry, you have suffered in many different ways for many years. No person, especially young persons like yourselves, should have to suffer this way. My wish for all of you is that you live long, comfortable, successful, happy, lives in a world free of fear.

Finally, I have a wish for myself. Upon my death later this evening, part of me will remain in a portrait in my office. That part of me will have my memories up until the moment of my death. But, although I am confident how events will unfold, I will not know for sure anything that happens after my death. So please do an old wizard one last favor. I should be most grateful if, when you have found this letter, you bring it to my office, show me that you have found it, sit down for a while, and tell me the tale of the adventures you will have gone through after I leave you tonight.

Yours,

With great affection and respect,

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

They read the letter in silence, and upon finishing it they remained silent for what felt like a long time, lost in their own thoughts. Slowly, the magnitude of what this all meant dawned on all of them. They realized that on that fateful evening one year earlier, on what he knew was going to be the last night of his life, as he was about to embark with Harry on a terribly dangerous mission, Dumbledore had been thinking about one thing. Them. He had not only taken the time to write them a long letter leaving with them his final thoughts, but he had taken the time to make them a treasure hunt for them to enjoy long after his death.

Even when he had held doubts about Dumbledore, Harry had always believed that Dumbledore cared about him deeply. All of them knew that Dumbledore cared about his students. But the realization that he had spent the last evening of his long life leaving a special, final gift for the four of them touched their hearts so deeply.

They were also in awe as to how accurate Dumbledore's predictions were about the events that transpired after his death. How could he have seen so clearly all the things that would happen? Harry was especially struck by Dumbledore's prediction that none of the other horcruxes would be destroyed by Harry's hand. Harry had never thought about it that way before. He went through each horcrux in his mind, and he realized that, indeed, each horcrux had been destroyed at the hands of a different person. They had been destroyed by Ron, Hermione, Neville, Crabbe, and by Voldemort. After Riddle's diary, none had been destroyed by Harry himself. How could Dumbledore have known?

Harry knew he would never truly sort out in his head his feelings about Severus Snape. He was glad that Snape's secret had not died with him. The memories in the pensieve had explained a lot. Just before he died, Snape had asked Harry to look at him so in his final moment Snape could gaze one last time into Lily's eyes. The best Harry could understand was that Snape must have loved him in some way because of his love for Lily, and at the same time hated him in some other way because of his feelings about James. He understood that Snape had been a brave man, that he had protected Harry, and that without Snape's help the war against Voldemort would not have been won.

Finally, Ron broke the silence.

"Wow. He actually left us a treasure hunt?"

"Yeah," said Hermione, with a tear on her eye. "On the night he knew he was going to die."

Ginny turned to Harry. "Dumbledore really loved you Harry. You know that, don't you?" Harry couldn't speak. He just nodded, his eyes welling up with tears.

"Calico," said Hermione. A moment later, the four friends were on the top of the circular staircase at the door to the headmistress's office. To their surprise, McGonagall was standing in the doorway in her nightgown.

"I've been waiting up for you," she said. "You're here to see him?"

They all nodded.

"Come in," said McGonagall. "He's waiting for you. I left four butterbeers on my desk. Stay for as long as you'd like. It's two o'clock in the morning, and I'm going to bed. Good night."

McGonagall winked at them and walked out of the room. They entered the office together and walked over to McGonagall's desk, looking up at Dumbledore, who was sitting in his portrait looking down at them. Harry held up the parchment and showed it to Dumbledore. Dumbledore smiled at them.

"I knew you would never give up until you found it," said Dumbledore. "I'm so proud of all of you. Now sit down and tell me a story. Tell it to me slowly. Don't leave anything out. I love a good adventure story."

They all sat down on the couch looking up at Dumbledore's sparkling blue eyes, feeling exhausted but happy. It was a very long story. When McGonagall woke up the next morning, the four friends were still there, curled up asleep on the couch. Dumbledore was sitting in his portrait with a peaceful look of contentment on his face watching over them.

The End

A/N Except there's an Epilogue coming.